Against all odds
by little purple butterflies
Summary: Spoilers for 1x07 "Free Fall". Despite seeing Neal escape, Peter didn't stop him. This is my take on Peter's thoughts during that scene.


******Disclaimer: All characters are property of USA network, Jeff Eastin, ect. I just borrow them for some fun and then hand them back to their owners. I did however take the dialog from the episode as this** ** ** **is meant to be a deeper look into a scene. The title has nothing to do with the Phil Collins' song of the same name.****  
 **Special thanks to my dear friend Sarah (1983Sarah) for all her help and encouragement and the great beta. Any mistakes that are still in there are mine. Also thanks to**** **everyone who reviewed/alerted one of my stories!******

"Get a hold of Hughes," Peter instructed Lauren before he turned around to make his way over to the judge's chamber.

He knew that he didn't have to go there since there wasn't going to be an open trial now. But his feelings told him that Neal was up to something. The question was what this "something" could be. Because, like he had just told his fellow agent, Neal wouldn't just confess, no matter how much evidence there was.

And, more importantly, Peter wanted - no - needed to be there. He had to see it through to the end.

Rounding the corner, he spotted a suited man, definitely government type, standing in front of a building and being busily engaged in a phone conversation. It had to be one of the marshals escorting Neal. So he stopped in front of the man and asked, "Judge Hickman's office?" "Fourth floor," came the answer.

Uttering a "thanks", Burke was already moving forward again until his eyes fell upon an orange colored banner fastened to a shop's awning just a couple of feet ahead. It read, "The Greatest Cake, Grand Opening."

"Bakery," the agent murmured to himself, "that son of a bitch bought that bakery." The proximity to Hickman's office couldn't be a coincidence. Whatever the former conman was up to, it definitely involved this shop. It started to make sense now, and yet it didn't. And it definitely didn't get him any closer to the answer.

It seemed like nothing had changed. Here he was again, trying to figure out Neal's plan. Only this time the man already was in prison, which didn't make it any easier for the agent as he had thought.

Sure, the conman had limited resources from behind bars. But that short guy was his attorney. And although the man wasn't in Caffrey's league, Peter had learned to put nothing behind the bespectacled man, much less when working in tandem with Neal.

Some movement a couple of floors up caught the agent's attention. A dark-haired man in a dark suit, both looking very familiar, was climbing out of a window. Peter drew closer, his hand instinctively moving to hover near his gun.

With the man's back turned toward him during the fall Burke couldn't see his face. But he didn't need to.

It wasn't possible - though he had scratched this word from his vocabulary once he had met Caffrey. But it was too much of a coincidence for it to _not_ be Neal when the falling man landed on the conveniently present awning.

The agent stopped advancing, simply looking on as the other man skillfully jumped down and turned so that he was now facing Peter. Despite his suspicion Burke was still shocked to discover that he'd been right with his assumption.

Though, he should have seen something like this coming. Having played cat-and-mouse with Neal for three years there had been more than one occasion where the conman had succeeded in escaping pretty much every situation and place. A judge's office wasn't much of a challenge for the resourceful and skilled man.

After all, it hadn't been sheer luck that had kept Caffrey from getting arrested. If it hadn't been for his weakness named Kate they'd probably still be chasing after him.

This was a whole new situation for them though. Not only because they had worked on the same side of the law for some time. But Peter had never been as close to actually catch Neal "in the act" as here and now.

And he wasn't sure how to proceed.

There was a whole book of regulations for apprehending a criminal. But, as he had just been shown again, Caffrey wasn't a normal criminal.

It reminded Burke of the first time he had arrested Neal. The man had just given up without a fight, being smart enough to realize that there was no way out for him in that situation. This time though there was no SWAT team as backup, but plenty of open space.

So seeing Caffrey halt in his motion for more than the moment it took a person to react surprised the agent, making him stop immediately after he had started to move forward.

But what struck him even more as odd was the fact that the conman seemed to be as unsure of this situation as he was.

From all the serious, and not so serious, remarks of Burke's he should know that the agent wouldn't blink to put him back behind bars if it was warranted. So why wasn't the man taking off?

He definitely was the faster runner. And he had to be aware that by now Peter knew that Neal wasn't armed, or dangerous for that matter. Under this circumstances the agent wouldn't, or rather couldn't, shoot him. All in all he was in the advantage.

And yet, he was hesitating.

Not even the fact that the man was surprised to see his former handler here could account for this strange behavior. He was known to think on his feet instantly.

Something must have made Neal assume that this time was different, Burke realized. But the agent had made his view clear at their last conversation, so he wondered what could have changed after that.

Or maybe it wasn't _after_ they had talked.

Having partially taken out his anger on the younger man, Peter hadn't given much attention, let alone consideration, to what Caffrey had told him, automatically disregarding it to be lies.

What had gotten stuck in his mind, however, were Neal's last words to him at that visit. It had seemed important to the man to tell him that, contrary to the agent's believe, he hadn't let him down.

And it wasn't just what he had said but how he had said it as well. For once there hadn't seemed to be a mask he had been hiding behind, he even was the first to break eye contact.

There was something there in that face and those eyes that had made him doubt, if only just for a moment.

But that doubt had been buried again as he had reminded himself that all the evidence pointed to Neal being the culprit. Hard evidence in the very sense of the word. The missing data from the anklet might be circumstantial; the initials on the fake pink diamond, however, weren't.

It hadn't been the first time that Caffrey had stolen something while being under Peter's supervision. And the theft of the diamond had Neal's signature all over it.

Evidence didn't lie, only people did. Combining all that, the only logical outcome was that Caffrey had done it. And this escape didn't exactly make the conman look any less guilty, either.

So the agent expected a variety of different reactions from the younger man, all along the line of a cocky grin and a casual wave of goodbye, but certainly not what he got now.

Because Neal just shrugged, almost apologetic, and his expression was far from amusement as he turned around.

It puzzled Peter why the other man would feel the need to apologize now. He already had made the agent look bad by stealing the diamond, and even more so when Burke had chased leads when the true culprit was at his side all along.

Even worse was that the conman had lied right to his face when he had claimed that he hadn't done it. Though he had worn the same hurt expression then as he'd had in prison, the agent had to admit.

So Burke had to ask himself if it was just his pride that refused to believe that Neal might be telling the truth. Had he pushed down the doubt in favor of the picture that the evidence had painted because it had fit the suspicion he had harbored ever since he had started working with the criminal?

Peter usually was a good judge of people but where Neal was concerned it felt like he was flying blind without any radar.

Seeing the subject of his musing running across the street, a tiny smile found its way on Burke's face and he caught himself admiring the conman's bold move.

It wasn't even the first time that Caffrey had made a spectacular escape like this. But it was the first that Peter had seen for himself. For Burke there was also an air of desperation about this though, proven by the odd behavior he'd just witnessed. It was the same feeling he now got from their talk in prison where Neal had claimed to having been set up, saying that he was working on the "who" part.

For a moment Peter allowed himself to consider this possibility.

It was the discovery of the initials that had put the lid on the case. If Caffrey could have forged the diamond, someone else could have as well. The conman was a legend in his circles, so it was possible that someone knew about the signature on the bonds.

Scratching that from the list of evidence, all that was left was some erased data, which of itself had no connection to the case. And that Neal had no alibi didn't automatically mean that he had done something criminal.

The agent's gaze followed Caffrey until the young man dived into the back of a brown van parked across the street. Even after having spent the better portion of the day working with him for the last couple of weeks, it was still fascinating to Peter when from one minute to the next he could suddenly read Neal like a book. He wondered when they had developed that level of understanding where, like here, no words were needed.

For the first time Burke's mind registered that he hadn't moved ever since Neal's feet had touched the ground. Just a minute ago he had been set to stop the conman. But something had held him back, subconsciously. Whether it was his mind trying to decide what the truth was or Neal's uncharacteristic behavior, he couldn't tell. Maybe it was a combination of both.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the marshal he had talked to earlier appear next to him, speaking urgently into his radio, "Somebody jumped out of a window and into a van!" The man ran past him just as the vehicle speed away.

Giving a short shake of his head, Peter knew the marshal's action was in vain. Not because he couldn't run fast enough to reach the van before it was gone. But Caffrey's plans were always down to every little detail. And he'd had enough encounters with law enforcement to exactly know what steps would be undertaken to capture him. It left one conclusion. "He's not in the van," Burke softly said.

From experience he knew that it was very hard to find Neal, if not next to impossible. Even if he wouldn't leave the city, something Peter was pretty sure of since every member of law enforcement was looking for him. The conman had gone underground, that much was clear.

For once the agent was glad that Caffrey no longer was his responsibility. He was more than content to sit back and see this one play out, especially in light of this incident.

Burke wasn't quite sure what to make of it all if he was honest. The little doubt that the conman, against all odds, wasn't guilty was back though. And the agent had a feeling that the other man had sensed this.

But all that Peter could do now was wait.

If Neal indeed was framed and trying to clear his name, it was his move now.

 **A/N: Thanks for reading! If you have some time please leave a review! Constructive criticism is always appreciated.**


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